Free Republic

Possible new View co-host S.E. Cupp got a tryout on Monday for the token conservative slot on the morning program. Wasting no time, the conservative commentator got in a fight with Whoopi Goldberg over the New York Times's endorsement of federally legalized marijuana. After Goldberg described herself as "very, very, very happy" with the Times, Cupp shot back, "Luckily, it is not up to the New York Times, a New York City liberal paper, to decide what everyone around the country does."

A majority of Florida voters support legalization of recreational marijuana, a new poll says. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday, 55 percent of Florida voters back legal possession of small amounts of recreational pot, compared with 41 percent who oppose it.

-snip- There are no perfect answers to people’s legitimate concerns about marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or alcohol, and we believe that on every level — health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues — the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization. That will put decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production and use where it belongs — at the state level. We considered whether it would be best for Washington to hold back while the states continued experimenting with legalizing medicinal uses of marijuana, reducing penalties, or even...

<p>DENVER (AP) — Officials at some Denver homeless shelters say the legalization of marijuana has contributed to an increase in the number of younger people living on the city’s streets.</p> <p>One organization dealing with the increase is Urban Peak, which provides food, shelter and other services to homeless people aged 15 to 24 in Denver and Colorado Springs.</p>

On Wednesday's edition of "The Five," co-host Bob Beckel remarked on Snoop Dogg's revelation that he as smoked marijuana in the White House, by admitting to the same thing. “I can’t criticize this guy (Snoop) because I’ve done dope in the White House myself,” Beckel said. Co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle let out an exasperated, “Oh, God.” “Are you breaking news?” asked their colleague Eric Bolling. “I did, yeah,” Beckel said. (vid at link)

Everything's in motion for what could be a stunning victory for marijuana legalization this November. Advocates in Oregon just got legalization of recreational marijuana on the ballot in the state, which means it could join Colorado and Washington as the only states to fully legalize (and tax) the drug. But beyond Oregon, an even more important battle is brewing farther northwest. Legalization is also on the ballot in Alaska. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)What makes Alaska special? There's a certain symbolic significance to passing marijuana legalization in a Republican-controlled red state. Colorado, Washington and Oregon all went for President Barack Obama in 2012, with...

While record-setting wildfires engulfed Central Washington, budding marijuana businesses in the area suffered from scorched plants unfit for production, pop-up fires on farms and road closures that slowed deliveries to retailers. A 15,000-acre wildfire encroached on the Columbia River Cannabis farm in Douglas County earlier this month and burned its 5-week-old medical-marijuana plants that were eventually to be used to start growing in the recreational market. Columbia River Cannabis in Douglas County was finally close to getting a marijuana-producer license after nine months. That is, until a 15,000-acre wildfire encroached on its farm July 10 and burned its 5-week-old medical-marijuana...

Mike Cutler, a 63-year-old grandfather, allegedly killed his cancer cells with homemade cannabis oil, after receiving his second liver cancer diagnosis in five years. The cancer survivor was first diagnosed with liver cancer in 2009 after he blacked out at work, after which he then received an organ transplant in November of that year. However, last year, his health took a turn for the worst when he found out new cancerous cells were attacking his new organ. A liver transplant and a second cancer diagnosis later, Cutler decided to buy marijuana from a dealer and make his tablets from the...

An initiative seeking to legalize, tax and regulate recreational marijuana in Oregon has qualified for the November ballot, the state said on its website on Tuesday. Only two U.S. states, Washington and Colorado, currently allow recreational marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law. Oregon's proposal will come before voters just two years after they rejected a similar measure. [...] If passed in November, Oregon would be the latest in a string of U.S. states to liberalize marijuana laws, either for recreational or medical use. On Sunday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill allowing children and adults with epilepsy to...

Scientists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are warning that streams harboring endangered salmon and steelhead could go dry because of the heavy water consumption by marijuana growers. During the growing season, California “pot farms” consume 60 million gallons of water a day. That equals 50% more than is consumed by the entire city of San Francisco. ... Two men were arrested were arrested last week at a Santa Cruz County pot farm that state authorities said used diverted stream water and threatened steelhead trout and endangered Central Coast Coho salmon. The raid netted 180 mature marijuana plants...

For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.

GOP-led House gives marijuana businesses another boost When it comes to liberalizing marijuana policy, Congress has once again shown that it is not always the liberals taking the lead. The GOP-dominated House on Wednesday delighted cannabis advocates by voting to prohibit law enforcement from going after banks for doing business with state-licensed marijuana growers and sellers. The measure would be a boon to the marijuana business. Currently, banks fear taking on dispensaries and related companies as clients out of concern that the relationship puts them at risk of being a target for federal drug and treasury agents. The banks had...

Politicians here have not even figured out how yet to implement their new law requiring us to pay for everybody else’s health care, and already people are clamoring to legalize drugs that are, at the very least, hazardous to their health. The good people of Colorado and Washington state can now buy and smoke pot without violating state laws. The movement to do so is spreading among other states like a hot tropical virus through a detention facility on the Mexican border. I, for one, have never really cared one way or the other if people choose to smoke pot....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Politicians here have not even figured out how yet to implement their new law requiring us to pay for everybody else’s health care, and already people are clamoring to legalize drugs that are, at the very least, hazardous to their health. The good people of Colorado and Washington state can now buy and smoke pot without violating state laws. The movement to do so is spreading among other states like a hot tropical virus through a detention facility on the Mexican border. I, for one, have never really cared one way or the other if people choose to smoke pot....

In reaction to a proposed amendment to block decriminalization of marijuana in D.C., the White House Office of Management and Budget took a strong stance in favor of states’ rights. Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland introduced an amendment that would prevent the D.C. Council from using any federal funds to enact pot policy changes, calling marijuana “poison to a teenager’s brain.” The D.C. Council has also released a statement condemning interference from Congress. The current legislation adopted by the Council replaces criminal penalties for marijuana usage with fines. The marijuana amendment in the Financial Services and General Government appropriations...

*The largest ever study of the effects of the main psychoactive component of cannabis suggests that it can cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals* To discover whether cannabis really does cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals, we carried out the largest ever study of the effects of THC (∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the drug’s principal psychoactive ingredient). We recruited 121 volunteers, all of whom had taken cannabis at least once before, and all of whom reported having experienced paranoid thoughts in the previous month (which is typical of half the population). None had been diagnosed with a mental illness. The volunteers were randomly chosen to...

It's rare when any business in Clark County attracts national or even regional interest, so the media throng that greeted last Wednesday's opening of Main Street Marijuana was quite a curiosity. The clever "weed and weenies" event that accompanied the store's opening, along with the presence of Mayor Tim Leavitt at the ribbon-cutting, captured the attention of media outlets that devour eye-catching visuals. But business likely would still have been brisk at Main Street Marijuana even if it hadn't snagged the free publicity. With a state-imposed limit of just 15 retail outlets for all of Clark County, and with some...

<p>DENVER (AP)- Colorado sold less recreational pot in May than in April, the first month-to-month sales decline for the newly legal drug.</p> <p>Tax collections reported by the Colorado Department of Revenue this week showed that Colorado sold about $21 million of recreational pot in May. That was down slightly from April, when the 4/20 marijuana holiday was credited in part for a boost in recreational sales to $22 million.</p>

And most is consumed by a minority of daily users. About 9% of Colorado’s population consumes marijuana, according to a market demand study conducted by the state department of revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division and the state’s Marijuana Policy Group. And those users, it’s estimated, will get through about 121.4 metric tons of pot every year. According to the report, that consumption — calculated through survey results, demographic data and source data — is “31 percent higher than a recent department of revenue assessment, 89 percent higher than a study by the Colorado Futures Center, and 111 percent higher than an...

Mike Boyer got his 15 minutes of fame when he became the first person in Spokane to buy recreational pot on Tuesday. On Wednesday Boyer posted his resume on Craigslist, saying Kodiak Security had fired him. Kodiak officials told the Spokesman-Review, though, that Boyer still had a job with the company. Boyer said two of his three part-time employers have asked him to take drug tests after seeing news reports of his pot purchase. He said he will fail them. Kym Ramey, a human resources manager for Kodiak, said employees are tested per company policy. "We're a security firm," Ramey...